The countdown to the August recess has entered its final stretch with just one week to go. But for Washington, D.C., lobbying organizations, the steamy month of Congressional downtime means a lot more than slipping out of town to sip pi�a coladas on the beach.

It's an opportunity to contact Members back home in their districts and to mobilize constituents with issue ads and special events. The break also gives lobbyists a chance to set up along the campaign trail to push their agendas with presidential candidates in ocean-free zones such as Des Moines, Iowa.

Usual suspects AARP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America plan to hit the road in August along with some grass-roots newcomers, including ONE, the organization founded by rock star Bono.

"August is a critical month," said James Fuller, a managing director at Public Strategies Inc., which is working to shape patent legislation for the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform. "When Members go home they hear about all these types of issues. Now's the time when they take notice."

Fuller's coalition plans to organize in-district meetings, letter and e-mail writing campaigns, and efforts to get its allies to be vocal participants at Members' town hall meetings. Fuller said all of this is intended to help lay the groundwork for upcoming action in September on patent reform bills in the House and Senate. Targets of the coalition's August lobbying efforts, he said, include Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Edward Kennedy (Mass.), among others. "We're going to be very aggressive in August, reaching out to companies in states we know we need," he added.

Bono's ONE campaign also is planning a major effort in August, said the group's Kimberly Cadena, asking its 2.5 million supporters to speak with their Members when it comes to the farm bill and other items.

"ONE will kick off the August recess with a grass-roots legislative briefing on the evening of August 2," Cadena said. Over the recess, ONE members, sans Bono, will be lobbying for the Education for All and U.S. Commitment to Global Child Survival bills, she added.

Divided We Fail - a health care-focused effort sponsored by the AARP, Service Employees International Union and Business Roundtable - plans to hit the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 10 to make sure presidential contenders hear their views.

And Bill Miller, vice president and political director with the Chamber of Commerce, said his group dispatches lobbyists on the road during every Congressional recess.

"We decided this year to put an increased focus on doing those visits to Congressional districts and states where lots of our issues are in play and Congressional districts that are also politically in play," Miller said, adding that fundraisers also are a component of the chamber's August outreach to Members.

Miller's team will focus on restarting the free-trade agenda, the stalled efforts on immigration reform and stymying union efforts in Congress including the card-check bill. "Whether you're a union company or mid-sized, little guy or not, the passage and enactment of something like this would have severe consequences for the United States economy," he said.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the liberal group Campaign for America's Future is planning a barrage of targeted ads, direct mail and local press events.

"The Campaign for America's Future plans to take the gloves off this recess to ensure that Americans are clear on who is pushing for change and who is standing in the way," said Toby Chaudhuri, the group's communications director. "The conservative minority has chosen a strategy of blocking legislation at a record pace in the Senate. We're going to expose the obstruction."

The private equity crowd, which is working to fend off proposals to increase taxes on the industry, is planning to continue making its case during the recess, said Robert Stewart, the Private Equity Council's vice president of public affairs. "It makes much more sense for the country, for the economic growth of the country, not to single out private equity for punitive tax treatment," he said.

America's Health Insurance Plans - which went on the air last week with ads defending the Medicare Advantage program that is on the chopping block to help pay for the State Children's Health Insurance Program - is planning to run more ads in targeted districts, depending on how this week's SCHIP debate turns out. AHIP will be working closely with seniors who use Medicare Advantage through the Coalition for Medicare Choices, said AHIP spokesman Mohit Ghose.

"We are going to ensure that every Member of Congress understands what the impending cuts being proposed in the House mean for their constituents," Ghose said. The 400,000 volunteer members of the coalition, he added, "will go to town hall meetings and interact at the district office."

Also on the health care front, PhRMA plans to fuel up its Partnership for Prescription Assistance bus, which will roll into several Members' districts over August, including those of Reps. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Gene Green (D-Texas) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.). The PPA is a pharmaceutical company program that helps pay for medicine for low-income people. PhRMA Senior Vice President Ken Johnson said the bus already has done 13 events but plans to ramp up the tour in August.

"August is important for us because it's the one time a year when most Members are back home in their districts," he said. "During August, we have the opportunity to hold a significant number of events."

where Meghan McCain#39;s head

Refugee_New

01-06 04:47 PM

WOW!!!

Can you read how much hate you are spewing in your posts? against jews, against hindus...against anyone who disagrees with the mostly wrong opinion you have. Where do you get your information from by the way? I mean the REAL TRUTH?? Have you been to Gaza?

Read Hamas's charter....it is clearly mentioned in there "calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip"

I am not spewing venom against anyone or any faithful members of other religion.

When you blamed entire muslims and their faith for the actions of few people, i am just showing how people kill muslims unjustly and how this world watch silently.

Why its ok to say Muslims killed Hindus and NOT OK to say Hindus killed Muslims?

Why its ok to say Muslims killed Jews and NOT OK to say Jews killed Muslims???

Look what really does not make sense about the "Consulting company" portion is that management consulting companies like BCG, Mckenzie or the Big 4 consulting firms have a business model where they "outsource" employees for projects to other companies. So, as it stands, these companies will not be able to hire anyone from top business schools. And we are not talking about desi consulting companies here (no pun intended).

Again, this bill embodies the basic principle that displaces US workers do not want to understand: "What is good for the economy may not be good for an individual".

And I say that because I have been myself displaces 2 times in my life, and every time, I have fallen (or stumbled), I have walked an extra mile to get a better life.

I just feel sorry for people like me and many others who came to this country with a different mindset and now find themselves in the midst of the worst anti-immigrant clime that has existed in a long time.

That said, I feel obligated to remind everyone - "Do yourself a favor and do everything within your means to make a meaningful change, self-help is the best help you will get"

- Raj

What about professional services? Like IBM global services, Oracle consulting etc.... all these companies thrive on after sales customization and support based on professional services contract and there are thousands of h1b visa holders doing professional services. It is also outsourcing of a employee to a client implementing their system. Look at SAP, Siebel consultants, they are outsourced at client places for years together to finish implementations and their work locations are changed based on client's needs from time to time in between jobs - this is again a huge pool of H1bs. I used to work fulltime for a company in their professional services group and travelled on the job to a lot of places. The company thrives on h1b resources for their high pressured jobs and they always bring in people from outside the country to do their jobs.

I think outsourcing employees to a different location is a part and parcel of H1b, and this bill is nailing exactly on that. It is aimed solely to purge out H1bs from the country.

So all said and done, we may now go down based on a racially motivated bill. I am not sure what it takes to educate the law makers, I would like to see the senior personnel at IV and more analysts to look into what can be done on this bill.

makeup meghan-mccain meghan

pitha

04-07 01:56 PM

You will not be able to convince the lawmakers who introduced this draconian law to make any exemptions for h1 extensions. These people introduced this measure with a well thought out strategy to kill h1 without actualy saying they want to kill h1.

A good way to protect people already on h1 from these draconian laws is through the ability to file for 485 without priority date. Every passing day will only make it worse for people on h1 not just new h1 but also people already on h1 waiting for h1 extension or renewal or transfer.

Can there be a differentiation between extensions/renewals/company changes and new H1bs?

In some sense there already is, since the former are not subject to cap, while the latter are.

So, why not extend the same argument to other situations? Get an LCA and impose all kinds of restrictions on new H-1Bs, but don't apply these on existing H-1Bs, especially if they have had their labors filed.

That way, they don't get rid of existing H1B employees. They only make it harder for new people to get H1bs. Which, it is my understanding, is not our fight.

Dude ask your employer to mail it himself to USCIS. You are not asking these documents for your timepass these are requested by USCIS so forward this mail to him and ask him to respond any ways its his responsiblity to support this GC application since it is his company that is asking for green card.

well..my current employer got email from dhs and he is sending out all details..but what about my previous employers..??

2010 where Meghan McCain#39;s head

Meghan McCain, who quite

NeverEndingH1

12-17 04:10 PM

LOL!

Since everyone is posting what they want, I guess I can also just post anything here....

One of the sad and dangerous signs of our times is how many people are enthralled by words, without bothering to look at the realities behind those words.

One of those words that many people seldom look behind is "education." But education can cover anything from courses on nuclear physics to courses on baton twirling.

Unfortunately, an increasing proportion of American education, whether in the schools or in the colleges and universities, is closer to the baton twirling end of the spectrum than toward the nuclear physics end. Even reputable colleges are increasingly teaching things that students should have learned in high school.

We don't have a backlog of serious students trying to take serious courses. If you look at the fields in which American students specialize in colleges and universities, those fields are heavily weighted toward the soft end of the spectrum.

When it comes to postgraduate study in tough fields like math and science, you often find foreign students at American universities receiving more of such degrees than do Americans.

A recent headline in the Chronicle of Higher Education said: "Master's in English: Will Mow Lawns." It featured a man with that degree who has gone into the landscaping business because there is no great demand for people with Master's degrees in English.

Too many of the people coming out of even our most prestigious academic institutions graduate with neither the skills to be economically productive nor the intellectual development to make them discerning citizens and voters.

Students can graduate from some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, without ever learning anything about science, mathematics, economics or anything else that would make them either a productive contributor to the economy or an informed voter who can see through political rhetoric.

On the contrary, people with such "education" are often more susceptible to demagoguery than the population at large. Nor is this a situation peculiar to America. In countries around the world, people with degrees in soft subjects have been sources of political unrest, instability and even mass violence.

Nor is this a new phenomenon. A scholarly history of 19th century Prague referred to "the well-educated but underemployed" Czech young men who promoted ethnic polarization there-- a polarization that not only continued, but escalated, in the 20th century to produce bitter tragedies for both Czechs and Germans.

In other central European countries, between the two World Wars a rising class of newly educated young people bitterly resented having to compete with better qualified Jews in the universities and with Jews already established in business and the professions. Anti-Semitic policies and violence were the result.

It was much the same story in Asia, where successful minorities like the Chinese in Malaysia were resented by newly educated Malays without either the educational or business skills to compete with them. These Malaysians demanded-- and got-- heavily discriminatory laws and policies against the Chinese.

Similar situations developed at various times in Nigeria, Romania, Sri Lanka, Hungary and India, among other places.

Many Third World countries have turned out so many people with diplomas, but without meaningful skills, that "the educated unemployed" became a cliche among people who study such countries. This has not only become a personal problem for those individuals who have been educated, or half-educated, without acquiring any ability to fulfill their rising expectations, it has become a major economic and political problem for these countries.

Such people have proven to be ideal targets for demagogues promoting polarization and strife. We in the United States are still in the early stages of that process. But you need only visit campuses where whole departments feature soft courses preaching a sense of victimhood and resentment, and see the consequences in racial and ethnic polarization on campus.

There are too many other soft courses that allow students to spend years in college without becoming educated in any real sense.

We don't need more government "investment" to produce more of such "education." Lofty words like "investment" should not blind us to the ugly reality of political porkbarrel spending.

Tiger Mom: Here's how to reshape U.S. education (http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-05-10-Reshape-US-education_n.htm) By Amy Chua | USA Today The American Idea: An Open Letter To College Graduates (http://www.forbes.com/2011/05/09/american-idea-college-graduates.html) By Carl Schramm | Forbes The Myth of American Exceptionalism (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/10/taking_exceptionalism_109795.html) By Richard Cohen | Washington Post The Role of Economics in an Imperfect World (http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/the-role-of-economics-in-an-imperfect-world/) By EDWARD L. GLAESER | New York Times Where the Jobs Were Lost (http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/where-the-jobs-were-lost/) By CASEY B. MULLIGAN | New York Times No, We Are Not a Nation of Hamburger Flippers (http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/05/09/nation-hamburger-flippers/) By Elizabeth MacDonald | Fox Business Multinationals Dump U.S. Workers for Foreign Labor (http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/05/09/Multinationals-Dump-US-Workers-for-Foreign-Labor.aspx) By JAMES C. COOPER | The Fiscal Times California Economy Gets a Jolt From Tech Hiring (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576311373667322428.html) By JIM CARLTON | Wall Street Journal

hair Meghan McCain Might as Well Be

girlfriend photo Meghan McCain

alisa

01-03 01:00 AM

on the other hand ..Alisa ..don't you think Pakistan should atleast handover some of the terrorists who are wanted particularly the MF/SF bastard Dawood ? basically u cannot have cake and eat it too ..if pak wants good relations/goodwill with India then they should take some action Screw Dawood Ibrahim. He is the past.

What is important right now is to get hold of the masterminds of Bombay in a transparent and credible manner. That would be in the long term self-interest of Pakistan (and India, and the world).

You certainly made yourself very clear. You are the most logical person , I have ever come accross. :p Labor substition was never yours to begin with...

EB porting..you are already in the queue...you change ur job..go through the rigours of GC ..ad ..wad and lose a pad of money...then "IF" you are lucky you can regain ur position in the queue.... and looking at the 140 backlogs..anyone attempting to port his PD will end up getting stuck in the muck..;-)

let me explain with example my friend:

there is a blond ahead of you in the line....and suddenly she gets a nature call..she goes does her thing and returns...and she wants to regain her rightful place...

now u my friend have a million dollar question: will u let her get back in the line in front of you...I bet u will...;-)

now replace that blond with a desi.. i am sure i know your answer..."tere baap ka line hai kya"...

so EB porting is possible only if you go through the rigours of stage 1 and 2...labor substition was a different animal..

Instructions: Just read the sentence straight through quickly without really thinking about it.

Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.

I feel the same way Gondalguru. This is a globalised world or atleast so the US would like everyone else to believe. In that sense where you are should matter less than the contribution you are making, yet alas the immigration system is stuck in its 20th century President Kennedy era mindset of "reuniting families". I am not against that per se as it is a noble virtue, but when I see that to be in direct contravention of the aims and objectives of globalization which incidently the USA also champions so vehemently, I sense hypocrisy at worst or a conflict of policy at best.

My parents immigrated to a country which is NOT retrogressed (ROW of which I hold a passport) when I was 3 yrs old. I was schooled and in every other way raised as such. Yet I was born in India................as you rightly point out by mere chance. Yet I am saddled with the consequence of waiting in line with every other applicant from India. If that were not funny enough, one of my close friends, his parents were in the USA in the 60s and left when his mother was 7-8 months pregnant with him, and he was born in India, now he has to go through the same line, he also holds a ROW passport. Should the majority of gestation count toward his citizenship? These are difficult questions and the current policy is ill geared to deal with them. Those that win from them laud them and those that get hurt curse them. It is what it is..........dysfunctional. It either is or it is not a globalised world, and the policy is or is not such. Unfortunately we are all caught in this indecisive mode that the US currently finds itself locked into, it is not just about us and our immigration situation, it is about a lot of other issues as well and the USA will spend the next 10-20 yrs figuring this out.

girlfriend Roberta McCain Meghan McCain

Meghan McCain Megan McCain

obviously

08-05 08:59 AM

Rolling Flood,

Clearly, you are a NumberUSA person trying to provoke deep rifts amongst a highly skilled workforce that succeeded in getting HR 5882 out there. Your game is up. Look, no one is claiming porting / interfiling is due to 'length of time'. Each application, under each category, is for a DIFFERENT job. Now, obviously, when you gain experience in one job, you become MORE ELIGIBLE for another job, typically at a more senior level. With that, comes a higher income and higher TAXES back to the USA. So, it is likely that EB3 applicants might have started in one job, gained 5 or 6 years experience, a Masters degree and a few certifications etc., and then become attractive candidates for jobs that require a Masters degree ... hence being eligible for an EB2 filing. The folks reviewing EB applications didnt start yesterday and are not wet behind their ears. EB3's that interfile to EB2's have to, LIKE ANYONE ELSE, show the merits of the EB2 application BY ITSELF. There is no notion of 'imagined eligibility'. If that hypothesis were true, how do we know that you did not suffer from a case of 'imagined eligibility' yourself??!!

Your perverted logic that people are using interfiling on the premise of 'waiting time in EB3 queues' is a fallacy without legal merit. It is a classic case of riding the ladder of inference and using your own conclusions to make up supporting-evidence, to the contrary of reality and law.

Now, if you think you can snake in a controversy through a law suit, only to protect your inflated sense of protectionism, keep in mind, that your target is the EB2 category itself, not the interfiling process. That latter is a provision of law. I presume that you are in EB2 yourself. Be prepared for unintended consequences because USCIS could very well freeze ALL EB2's INCLUDING YOURS! Might seem a far stretch, but realistically, anytime a court sees 'merit' in challenging an established system, ALL come under purview. How can your case be assumed to be 'innocent' while everyone else that you are against be 'guilty'? How do we know that YOUR EB2 filing was not based on 'assumed eligibility'?

There are numerous cases of people going to court seeking 'justice' only to find themselves very quickly standing 'on the other side'... trying to get out of a self inflicted mess.

Obviously, you have issues that run deeper than discontentment with US legal immigration process. Get yourself some help. Seriously.

I challenge you to disclose YOUR REAL NAME YOUR CASE NUMBER YOUR EMPLOYER'S NAME YOUR EB2 JOB DESCRIPTION so that the larger community can find out if there really is no eligible US person to take that job. Seriously. Want to play that game? I can give you a 100% guarantee, that you would rather fight a 'shadow cause' being the coward you are ... and wont hold yourself up to the kind of scrutiny that you wish to hold others to.

hairstyles Meghan McCain Skin Cancer PSA

Meghan McCain: Michele

sledge_hammer

06-26 08:41 PM

Home size may be smaller, but the land (plot) also got smaller...

Thanks for the data. There is one more twist to the story though. The "median home" of 1940 is NOT the same as the median home of 2000. The home sizes have more than doubled in this period (dont have an official source right now - but look at Google Answers: Historic home sizes (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=110928) . A little digging should give us an official source if you want.).... So, if the median home prices have doubled post adjustment for inflaton - that really means that the prices have stayed flat adjusted for inflation.

Statistics is a bitch :-D

Edit: Errrr - the median prices actually quadrupled - and not merely doubled, while the home sizes increased by about 2.3 - 2.4 times. This means roughly 1.6 times actual appreciation - i.e. less than 1% of compounded interest (1% over 60 years = 1.82 times). Compare that to the safest vehicle out there - TIPS and tell me who would have been better off - the guy who bought his home in 1940 or the one who bought TIPS (assuming his net cash flow was zero - i.e. he earned the same as he spent for the house).

javadeveloper

07-19 07:33 PM

Hello unitednations,

Can you please comment on my case , pls look at post#140 or http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showpost.php?p=124370&postcount=140

I appreciate your help.

chanduv23

09-29 11:00 AM

Obama presidency will be a positive experience or a negative, based on whether Sen. Obama chooses to show Leadership or panders to the extreme left-wing of his party.

Obama has everything to gain from supporting the EB community. An example is the loyal following Pres. Clinton has developed with the Asian community through the passage of recapture in the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act. Passing pro-EB immigration bills will definitely create a pro-Obama community as he gets ready to run for the second term. Though these new Permanent Residents may not be having the vote, they can contribute generously to the Obama campaign legally.

Obama campaign won't be able to bank on 'Hope and Change' for the second term. Contributors will be judging him based on what he has done for their community. As he faces the Republican money-machine these contributions from the grateful former-EB immigrants will create a safe avenue for funding.

Helping EB immigrants will not hurt Obama with the labor unions and left-wing groups. Whatever be their gripes, they will not be voting Republican or contributing Republican for sure. Same cannot be said of EB immigrant community who can by and large go Republican, if they see Obama working to the detriment of their interests and the community. With Asian votes and more importantly being so crucial in NY/NJ and CA, If I were Obama I would think hard before supporting anything that can turn these communities against me, and my party for a long time given the uncertainties of politics. If past trends have been any indication EB immigrant community has always voted solidly Democratic. Last thing any sensible leader or party will do in democracy will be losing thousands of future voters likely to vote for them and/or their party.

Obama can either create a lasting Legacy with this community.Or he can make them angry for life by pandering to the extreme left-wing of his party, who won't even remember the action come the next elections. I hope Obama makes a sensible choice for the greater good. But if the current Democratic party politics is any indication, I am skeptical. It is beyond my understanding why the Democratic party leadership is hell-bent on converting the pro-Democrat EB immigrant community into future reliable Republican voters, by consistently black-balling any bills that could help the community!

Passing anti-EB immigrant measure will NOT help the Dems get any new votes that they already don't have. Dems may lose a few votes for short term -which I highly doubt - by passing Recapture and other pro-EB bills. But that loss will be more than offset by new grateful voters who will vote Democratic for a generation and may be more. I can only hope that common sense prevails, and Obama acts keeping the common interests of his party and EB immigrants in mind while acting on the issue, while getting ready to pack-up for Canada or India, if forced to do so by Sen. Durbins pet policies.

In my opinion, Sen Durbin's stance on EB immigrants would be the cause of concern and like we all know Sen Durbin will make calls on these issues if Sen. Obama becomes the President. Lets see how it unfolds.